“I am crying, sir, for those I left behind me. There were twelve of us altogether, and we had been lying hidden since the people first rose. We were in a cellar. The house was burnt over us, but the cellars were in the back–yard, and though the houses were destroyed, and we were nearly smothered, we managed to live through it. A part of a wall fell across the entrance, and that saved us. There was some food stored in the cellar and we have lived upon it up to now, but it was nearly all gone when I left. We have known nothing that was passing outside. Yesterday we cleared away some of the bricks and I crawled out. We could hear the firing going on continuously, and knew that the people in the Legations must be fighting the Boxers, and it was agreed that I should try to make my way here and ask them to send out a rescue party. Now I find that the Legations are so surrounded, and attacked so fiercely, that it is impossible for them to save my comrades. I have been speaking to one of your chief officers, and he tells me that it is quite impossible for them to do so, and all my friends must perish. I have an old father and mother there, and a wife, and three sisters, and the rest are all friends.”
“How far are they away?”
“More than a mile, sir.”
“I will think it over,” Rex said. “I am afraid nothing can be done, but I will see. If you are here at seven oʼclock this evening I will tell you.”
As usual Ah Lo was not far off, and Rex went to him and told him what he had heard.
“It is bad,” Ah Lo said, “but what can be done, master? Many have been massacred; it is but twelve more.”
“Yes, but we could do nothing for the others. Indeed, most of them were massacred before we got in here. I mean to save these people if I can.”
“But how can it be done, master?”
“That is what I am thinking about, and I want you to think too, Ah Lo.”
“I am ready to die with you, master; and if you tell me to, I will try to get out and do all I can for these people, if you will but remain here.”